Aside from the standard backyard locations, Backyard Wrestling's arenas include a truck stop, a slaughterhouse, an outdoor parking lot, a talk show set and a strip club. Each environment is littered with barbed wire-laden bats, fluorescent light bulbs, breakable tables, steel chairs and other objects players may use to injure their opponents.

Also this game featured FMVs that you could unlock by completing certain objectives while fighting in the different venues. Mostly they are taken from the "Backyard Wrestling" DVD series, and they have the different songs of the game playing in the background. The first one on the backyard level was "Backyard Babes 101", which contained the backyard babes near-naked over Bowling for Soup's song "Punk Rock 101", featured on their Drunk Enough to Dance album. Mud pools, water pools and sun tan lotion are all featured in this clip. Other FMVs, like "Collateral Damage" and "Kids Today..." are also featured, including two clips of ICP's wrestling promotion, JCW, with two of their songs playing in the background.

Contents

Gameplay

The gameplay could be better described as a cross between classic pro wrestling video games and 3D platform fighting like Power Stone.

The game had a "Story" like mode, entitled "Talk Show Mode" circling around a show called "Today's Topic", which resembled The Jerry Springer Show. The talk show host, a nameless character that resembled Kevin Gill, one of the game's creators, interviewed different victims and personalities of backyard wrestling. After the interview, your character would be placed where the victim was and you would fight three other backyard wrestlers. You had to face three opponents with one health bar.

Reception

Released in 2003, the game went on to sell nearly half a million copies worldwide. Its reception from critics was lukewarm, but player interest was high enough to justify the development of a sequel. Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood was released the following year, including more wrestlers and moves but mostly the same game play.

Sum 41's "The Hell Song" was used during TV commercial advertising for the game.